Comparison of Personal or Indoor PM2.5 Exposure Level to That of Outdoor: Over Four Seasons in Selected Urban, Industrial, and Rural Areas of South Korea: (K-IOP Study)

Chiyou Song; Chris Chaeha Lim; Birhan Legese Gurmu; Mingi Kim; Sangoon Lee; Jinsoo Park; Sungroul Kim

doi:10.3390/ijerph20176684

Comparison of Personal or Indoor PM_2.5 Exposure Level to That of Outdoor: Over Four Seasons in Selected Urban, Industrial, and Rural Areas of South Korea: (K-IOP Study)

Chiyou Song, Chris Chaeha Lim, Birhan Legese Gurmu, Mingi Kim, Sangoon Lee, Jinsoo Park, Sungroul Kim

Community, Environment and Policy

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

This study aimed to compare the distribution of indoor, outdoor, and personal PM_2.5 (particulate matter ≤ 2.5 μm) hourly concentrations measured simultaneously among 81 nonsmoking elderly participants (65 years or older) living in urban, industrial, or rural areas over 4 seasons (2 weeks per season) from November 2021 to July 2022). PM_2.5 measurements were conducted using low-cost sensors with quality control and quality assurance tests. Seasonal outdoor PM_2.5 levels were 16.4 (9.1–29.6) μg/m³, 20.5 (13.0–38.0) μg/m³, 18.2 (10.2–31.8) μg/m³, and 9.5 (3.8–18.7) μg/m³ for fall, winter, spring, and summer, respectively. For indoor PM_2.5, the median seasonal range was 5.9–7.5 μg/m³, and the median personal PM_2.5 exposure concentration was 8.0–9.4 μg/m³. This study provided seasonal distributions of IO (ratio of indoor to outdoor PM_2.5 concentration) and PO (ratio of personal to outdoor PM_2.5 concentration) using a total of 94,676 paired data points. The median seasonal IO ranged from 0.30 to 0.51 in fall, winter, and spring; its value of summer was 0.70. The median PO by season and study area were close to 1.0 in summer while it ranged 0.5 to 0.7 in other seasons, statistically significantly lower (p < 0.05) than that in summer. Our study has revealed that the real-world exposure level to PM_2.5 among our elderly study participants might be lower than what was initially expected based on the outdoor data for most of the time. Further investigation may need to identify the reasons for the discrepancy, personal behavior patterns, and the effectiveness of any indoor air quality control system.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	6684
Journal	International journal of environmental research and public health
Volume	20
Issue number	17
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20176684
State	Published - Sep 2023

Keywords

PM
indoor
outdoor
personal exposure

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Pollution
Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis

Access to Document

10.3390/ijerph20176684

Cite this

Song, C., Lim, C. C., Gurmu, B. L., Kim, M., Lee, S., Park, J., & Kim, S. (2023). Comparison of Personal or Indoor PM_2.5 Exposure Level to That of Outdoor: Over Four Seasons in Selected Urban, Industrial, and Rural Areas of South Korea: (K-IOP Study). International journal of environmental research and public health, 20(17), Article 6684. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20176684

Comparison of Personal or Indoor PM_2.5 Exposure Level to That of Outdoor: Over Four Seasons in Selected Urban, Industrial, and Rural Areas of South Korea: (K-IOP Study). / Song, Chiyou; Lim, Chris Chaeha; Gurmu, Birhan Legese et al.
In: International journal of environmental research and public health, Vol. 20, No. 17, 6684, 09.2023.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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abstract = "This study aimed to compare the distribution of indoor, outdoor, and personal PM2.5 (particulate matter ≤ 2.5 μm) hourly concentrations measured simultaneously among 81 nonsmoking elderly participants (65 years or older) living in urban, industrial, or rural areas over 4 seasons (2 weeks per season) from November 2021 to July 2022). PM2.5 measurements were conducted using low-cost sensors with quality control and quality assurance tests. Seasonal outdoor PM2.5 levels were 16.4 (9.1–29.6) μg/m3, 20.5 (13.0–38.0) μg/m3, 18.2 (10.2–31.8) μg/m3, and 9.5 (3.8–18.7) μg/m3 for fall, winter, spring, and summer, respectively. For indoor PM2.5, the median seasonal range was 5.9–7.5 μg/m3, and the median personal PM2.5 exposure concentration was 8.0–9.4 μg/m3. This study provided seasonal distributions of IO (ratio of indoor to outdoor PM2.5 concentration) and PO (ratio of personal to outdoor PM2.5 concentration) using a total of 94,676 paired data points. The median seasonal IO ranged from 0.30 to 0.51 in fall, winter, and spring; its value of summer was 0.70. The median PO by season and study area were close to 1.0 in summer while it ranged 0.5 to 0.7 in other seasons, statistically significantly lower (p < 0.05) than that in summer. Our study has revealed that the real-world exposure level to PM2.5 among our elderly study participants might be lower than what was initially expected based on the outdoor data for most of the time. Further investigation may need to identify the reasons for the discrepancy, personal behavior patterns, and the effectiveness of any indoor air quality control system.",

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